This is a story about something coming home, otherwise known as good things come to he who waits.

When he was growing up, Robert’s parents had a half share in a boat, Picardie and Robert loved that boat – I mean he really loved that boat. I am not sure he ever fully forgave his parents for selling her while he was away working in America for a year. The boat was bought by a lovely family who kept her just down the river from us at Phyllis Court in Henley and so, when we returned from our travels abroad, we would see her gliding up and down our stretch of the Thames. Robert would always point her out and say with a sigh “that used to be the Old Man’s boat” and I would always point out that a) we couldn’t afford her and b) we have nowhere to keep her. Can you tell I was not really a boat person?

We skip on a few years (possibly a decade – doesn’t time fly) and Robert has a meeting with a local boat builder to discuss a building he may or may not have, and they get chatting about old boats. Robert (because he’s not bitter at all) shares the story of his Father’s boat with said boat builder, who in turn leads Robert across his yard to where, under a tarpaulin, is Picardie, over-wintering out of the water.

We roll on another six months into the spring and our boat builder friend rang Robert to see if he was serious when he said if Picardie ever came on the market to let him know (not sure he mentioned that part of the conversation to me), as she was being put up for sale ahead of the summer season. I am not an unreasonable woman (well not completely) and so I set Robert a challenge – he could have the boat if he could find somewhere, no more than 20 minutes’ drive away, where we could keep her. We might as well have signed the cheque there and then. Robert spoke to a man, who knew a man, who said he should talk to a man who owned a covered boat house in Mill End. Mill End is where we live! Who knew that 2 minutes from our house there is a secret garden with a magical, if slightly rustic, boat house and there happened to be a berth to rent, so now she had a place to stay. Somehow the stars had aligned and so after nearly 30 years away, Picardie came back to the Spicer family.

In the years since she returned, we have had so much pleasure out on the river (either just the two of us or with family and friends) that I can’t believe I was such a boat sceptic.

Picardie is definitely one of my favourite things and I feel I am living my best life every time we head out on her.

WITH FAMILY

WITH FRIENDS

BUT ALWAYS WITH PLEASURE